This class is super tough as I'm sure you've heard. But if you get a good TA and work hard you'll be completely fine. Her tests are super tricky so do the practice exams multiple times to get familiar with how she words her questions. My biggest tip is to study really hard for the exams and work your butt off on the final lab write up and between those two things you'll be fine.

The class is split so that half of your grade comes from a "lecture" portion - weekly quizzes, a midterm, and a final + a "lab" portion, consisting of several short assignments, participation, and a final write up. The lectures are pretty easy to understand, however, some topics are tricky and require you to think carefully about all the fine details (especially on the multiple choice midterm and final, which mostly consist of scenarios that you read and answer questions about). It helps a lot not to procrastinate with lectures or any of the written assignments since they tend to be dense at times, and keeping up with the schedule will also help with remembering concepts as well. There is group work involved as well with the lab discussions.

The class material isn't even hard. This class is just plain annoying and a lot of work. Good luck

I took this class online due to COVID.
This class is split into two parts, lecture and lab, and each one is worth 50% of your grade.
1. Lecture- Grades came from two exams and five weekly quizzes. I found lectures to be interesting and straightforward. Quizzes were straightforward as well, and I believe most people get 100%. Both quizzes and exams were open note. Exams were trickier, but doing the practice exams they give will help a lot, and the averages were always in the B range. Lecture grades were not curved unless they would help you.
2. Lab- The graded assignments were a few study proposals, your experiment final project, and participation. This is the portion that is curved that you probably have heard horror stories about. I found this class to be somewhat straightforward. For every assignment, just make sure you follow the rubric exactly. Your experiment will be done in groups, so pray you get a good group. I received an A- in the lab portion and scored 1 standard deviation above the mean.

Overall, make sure you stay on top of your assignments and follow the rubrics exactly. Go to office hours to boost those participation points and ask questions. Don't be afraid of this class! I was very worried to take it but it ended up being completely fine!! Even though my lab grade was an A- I still got an A due to the other half being the lecture grade, so the grading scheme isn't as hard as you might expect.

So everything you hear about this class is true, it will be the most challenging class in the psych pre reqs. Yes there are going to be people that are just going to be getting A's on everything, and if that is not you, THAT IS OKAY !!!I had to take this class twice and both times were a living hell, the TA's and lead TA's are super nice. The curve is lab is absolutely a grad killer. But the curve in lecture literally brought be up like 8%. The group project is not insane and as long as your group is proactive you should be good with all of that. The tests and quizzes can be grade killers though! Make sure you do all the practice tests and go to the lead TA's for help!!! I can not stress this enough, simply by going to speak and get advice from the TA's I went from a D on my midterm to a B on my final ! Take this class with easy classes, do not take 4 classes the quarter you take this class. Professor Firstenburg took into consideration the impacts of Covid and graded accordingly, she was neither extremely nice or mean, but she was sweet in her lectures, a little boring but very helpful! Good luck!

Pretty easy class-just go to OH for feedback from your TA. I had Emily and she was awesome and really great at relieving stress.

So, I took this class during a remote quarter where they also decided to test out some restructuring of the assignments for the class (and made it very back heavy). But, I don't think the TAs or students liked the restructure so I'm not sure if it'll be the same as this quarter in the future. However, while the group project was annoying if you got group members who didn't do much (like I did), the class was pretty doable. The biggest thing with this class is to just stay on top of the assignments. If you wait until the last second, you're not going to do as well on anything. Starting working on stuff right away and give yourself time to proof read. If you stay on top of everything, it makes the class much much much easier.

I took this class online during COVID-19.

The other reviews touch on why this class can be a drag. I thought it was manageable online but the issue is that many of the assignments are vague and require you to ask a lot of questions in order to ensure a good grade.

Paulina is a great TA. Do not be afraid to ask her any questions as she will likely answer most if not all questions in a timely manner.

Here is a breakdown of my scores:

Lab (60% of grade):
Quizzes: 5/12, mean: 8.29, sd: 1.90
Study Strategy Proposal: 79/100, mean: 80.71, sd: 9.87
Project Proposal: 79/100, mean: 84.29, sd: 7.22
Individual Final Write up: 85/100, mean: 82.19, sd: 8.28
Group Materials: 9/10, mean: 8.57, sd: 0.51
Discussion Assignment: 80/100, mean: 81.90, sd: 8.73
Participation Points: I do not have my score but the mean was a 69.48 and the sd was 3

Lecture (40% of grade):

Final Exam: 31/40 (78%), mean: 33/40, sd:4

If you want to do really good on the final exam, I'd suggest studying the material from the book. Ask a lot of questions in lab and stay on top of all of the assignments especially in the last two weeks.

Selling the PDF version of this textbook for $25, way cheaper than what you'll pay for at the bookstore. venmo: Lsoto28

The class material is easy. The lectures and sections are easy. The quizzes are easy as long as you attend the lecture. But... I hated the group projects and the curve. For my personal papers, I did better than the mean, but the group I was placed in literally did not do anything. One of them even did their part 30 minutes before the deadline. I had made friends in section but the TA put us in random groups and I was just unlucky. BTW, the tests are really hard, you have to study and attend study sessions.